The Minister of Communications, Faith Muthambi, says South Africa's tourism sector is not under threat from the Ebola Virus Disease even though a number of Asian visitors have cancelled planned trips to this country.

Grand Parade, the company responsible for bringing Burger King to SA‚ said it bought a further 32.9% stake in Mac Brothers for R42,79 million‚ to achieve cost efficiencies and gain greater access to the African markets.

Famous Brands, which owns Steers‚ Wimpy and Debonairs, plans to open 243 new restaurants in the coming year after reporting record turnover and profit for the year. It is also planning to enter Angola and Ghana.

In SA, Famous Brands produces 265,000 cups of specially blended coffee a day. With 2,175 restaurants, the company, whose brands include Wimpy, Steers and Mugg & Bean, also makes 77m ice-cream cones a year. It's the big daddy of SA franchising, with a R9,7bn market capitalisation, and it wants to repeat its local success in the rest of Africa.

City Lodge Hotels‚ which has "refreshed" its branding to better differentiate its four brands and reflect its ongoing enhancements and modernisation‚ increased average occupancies by three percentage points to 62% in the 12 months to June‚ underpinning a revenue increase of 11% to R975.9m and a 32% rise in normalised headline earnings to R252.2m.

In response to the rapidly growing demand for business accommodation in Zambia‚ Protea Hospitality Group said on Monday (15 July) it was significantly expanding its Protea Hotel in Lusaka as part of its African expansion drive.